Bandanna bib

Finally, after all of the chaos of last week, I’m able to get back to some of my (far too) many ongoing projects. If you’ve read some of my other posts, you’ll know that I currently have a drool monster living in my house! Since he got more mobile and is rolling everywhere, he has also become something of a spit up monster. In the hope of keeping at least some of his clothes clean, I wanted to put bibs on him all the time, instead of just for meal time (homemade baby food posts to follow – stay tuned!). But, the bibs that we have, while cute enough and certainly functional, cover up the cute outfits that I so diligently choose several times a day. Cue my search for bandanna bibs. These tend to be smaller than regular bibs, so they’re great for drool (although not so much for food-related messes), and can be more a part of the outfit than a cover for it. And you know what I found? Man, are those things expensive for what they are. I mean, seriously, a small piece of flannel and cotton for $4 each?! Are you kidding?!

With this is mind, and armed with coupons, off we went to Joann fabrics and crafts after church on Sunday. I had planned to get a couple of flannel fat quarters and a couple of cotton fat quarters and start from there. What I actually ended up with was a small bundle of each (reduced from $9.99 to $5.99 each).

OK, the polka dots may not be the most masculine of prints, but it’s going to be drooled on by a baby who hasn’t yet been introduced to the concept of masculinity. I think we’ll get away with it.

I should say at this point that I am definitely not meant to be a seamstress. Sewing always seems like it should be so easy, but for some reason I seem to create a multitude of problems with tension, threads catching or breaking, or just not even getting the stitches straight. So if I can make these, you can!

For these you’ll want one piece of cotton and one piece of flannel. Actually, it doesn’t really matter what fabric you use, as long as at least one of them is absorbent. Once you have your fabric, you want to start with squares. Or at least, roughly squares. I measured 12 inches down each side of the fabric, folded it intro a triangle and cut around it. If you want the pattern in a specific orientation when the bib is finished, you may have to rotate your fabric, since the diagonal between 2 corners will end up being the top of the bib. One square will make 2 pieces, so you can just use one square if you want the same pattern front and back, or you can use it to make 2 bibs so that you can replace the first one when it’s been soaked through! Keeping your “square” folded into a triangle, fold it in half again so that you can find the middle of the long side. Either mark or make a small cut here (you won’t be keeping this piece, so don’t worry about making a hole in it). Unfold back to the first triangle, and measure 1 inch down from the middle point that you just marked or cut. Draw a straight line from this point to each corner and cut, leaving 2 pieces that are roughly triangular with a shallow v on the long side.

Pin the pieces with the right sides facing each other and cut around an inch off of the top corners to make it less bulky when you turn it. Sew with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, making sure you leave a hole to turn it the right way afterwards. Where you leave the hole is up to you. Personally, I find the finish a little neater if I leave one of the ends open, but it is definitely harder to turn. You may also want to cut a small notch into the point at the bottom (being careful not to cut the seam), just to remove some of the excess fabric.

Once your bib is the right way round, press it to neaten the seams. Of course, you don’t have to do this. If I’m rushing because I don’t have much nap time left to work with, I’ll skip this step. If I was making this for someone else, I would definitely do it. Pin the hole closed, and top stitch all the way around Finish up the ends, sew on a snap and you’re all done!

The only thing left to do is wrangle it onto the drool monster!

Since the fabric was reduced and I got 40% off the snaps, I managed to make 8 of these for about $14. There are no specific fabrics that you need to use for these – you could upcycle an old towel or t-shirt, or dig through the bargain bins at the store. The only hard and fast rule is to make sure those snaps are on nice and tight so that they don’t become a choking hazard.

If you want a printable pattern instead of measuring, folding and cutting, please let me know and I’ll make one. If you make some of these, I’d love to see the results!